VANCOUVER — It’s a time where opposing offences surge and defences disappear. A strange dimension of football that allows quarterback sacks and has otherwise stellar cornerbacks hurdled over in its wake.

Four games into their season, the third quarter is the Edmonton Eskimos’ Bermuda Triangle.

Now 1-3 in the Canadian Football League standings after a 31-21 loss to the B.C. Lions on Saturday night, the Eskimos gave up a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter for the third time this season; a trend that’s persisted in all three of their losses this year.

All was well at the start of Saturday’s third quarter, where a 10-10 game quickly slipped off of the radar for Edmonton as B.C. reeled off two impressive, game breaking touchdown drives to put the game out of reach.

Lions quarterback Travis Lulay found receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux for a 77-yard touchdown pass at 3:05 of the third quarter and Andrew Harris’ 24-yard run was a highlight of the night candidate, as he leapfrogged cornerback Aaron Grymes to the one-yard line then finished the drive on the next play at 9:30 for one of his three touchdowns in the game.

Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly made 12 of 20 passes for 152 yards and one interception, playing much of the second half with a swelling elbow. Slotback Fred Stamps was quiet in his return from injury, catching just three passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Two of those passes and the touchdown came in the final two minutes of the game, with backup Jonathan Crompton in for Reilly.

Having seen this formula for the third time in four weeks, Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed said defensive stops are key when his team gets back on the field.

“I feel we’re doing everything right in terms of the mechanics at halftime,” Reed said, much calmer this week than when he fumed in the post-game of his team’s 17-3 loss to the Lions in Edmonton.

“Obviously B.C. is a very good team, a veteran team that understands each other and has played with each other for a bit, but what we have to do is have a concentrated effort of making certain that even if we don’t get off the field, we don’t allow touchdowns to be scored.”

“We haven’t done anything offensively, either,” added Reilly, who was sacked twice in the lacklustre third quarter. “The last two weeks we haven’t put points on the board in the third quarter.

“It’s something we talked about in the locker-room at halftime: Trying to go out and getting them in the third quarter and they kicked off to us and we get the ball, we have to at least try and get the ball down there and get some points and set the tempo for the second half. We need to work on it.”

After 30 minutes, the game was up for grabs. The teams traded field goals into the second quarter before the Lions were gifted with a roughing the passer penalty on Eskimos defensive end Odell Willis, which kept the drive alive. With the ball on Edmonton’s 13-yard line, that was all that Harris needed and muscled his way in for the major.

With B.C. leading 10-3 after Paul McCallum’s convert, Reilly put together a solid eight-play, 71-yard drive that knotted the game up. Third-string QB Kerry Joseph finished the drive with a three-yard run to the end zone, but the memorable moment came at the 27-yard line, when the Eskimos ran a gadget play that had slotback Cary Koch connect with Reilly for a 15-yard gain. The score tied the game and gave the Eskimos their first touchdown in two weeks.

In seemingly calm waters at the start of the third, Lulay (18 of 24 passes for 284 yards, one touchdown and one interception) and Harris (17 carries for 103 yards) and Arceneaux (five catches for 106 yards) took over. The Lions led 24-10 after 45 minutes and the Eskimos weren’t able to put a serious dent in the lead until garbage time, after Harris finished off a short drive that was lit by Lions defensive end Jabar Westerman’s interception of Reilly. The Eskimos’ first-year starting QB injured his elbow in the third quarter and watched it balloon up on him as the second half progressed.

“During the course of the game you hit the ground and get tackled. The little nicks and stuff like that are all over your body,” Reilly said. “The only difference is when you’re the quarterback people see it and it’s your elbow. It doesn’t affect anything.”

Reilly continued to throw the ball as the bursa sac in his elbow continued to swell. He left the game with two minutes remaining and gave way for backup Jonathan Crompton.

“I was able to throw fine, it didn’t affect my throwing motion,” Reilly said. “We’ll drain it and put some ice on it and it should be fine.”

That remains to be seen. Sunday promises to be a painful day for Reilly, after his elbow is drained.

In garbage time, Crompton led a quick, five-play, 76-yard drive that saw Stamps take a tremendous hit from B.C. defensive back Dante Marsh. Stamps hopped up from the hit and caught a 12-yard pass for the touchdown, his third of the season. Crompton finished the night making four of his five passes for 76 yards and the one touchdown.

For a team with Grey Cup aspirations, the record, the third quarter vanishing act and the offensive inconsistency would be a green light to hit the panic button. In rebuild mode, it seems that Saturday’s loss is another lesson in what has the makings of a long journey.

“I saw a young team that fought very hard,” Reed said of the game.

“I saw that those guys went out and battled until the very end. Obviously B.C. did a very good job of executing very well in the third quarter to build a 14-point lead and we weren’t able to overcome that but I’m very proud of this football team tonight.”

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Eskimos this week. They flew home after Saturday’s game, will take Sunday to heal up and will only practice twice this week before flying to Montreal on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game against the Alouettes.

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